1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to electronic mail systems and, more particularly, the invention relates to a method, article of manufacture and apparatus for processing electronic mail documents comprising an electronic mail message having a data portion such as a text section or an attachment file.
2. Background of the Related Art
In today's electronic mail (e-mail) environment, users send e-mail documents to other users of recipient computers. The e-mail documents generally comprise at least one data portion such as a text section or an attachment file. The text section may include the body of an e-mail message contained in the electronic document. The attachment file may include a text file, a voice file, a video file, a high-resolution graphic file and the like.
Attachment files are often sent with the e-mail document using a “reply with history” feature. This “reply with history” feature is utilized to reply to or forward an e-mail document with the contents of a previously received e-mail document. Repeated utilization of the reply with history feature generates an e-mail document having multiple levels of e-mail messages, where a prior e-mail message or lower level of the e-mail document is nested within a more recent e-mail message or higher level of the e-mail document.
As e-mail documents are frequently sent among various users, a particular user or recipient often receives multiple copies of a particular attachment file. These multiple copies require additional memory to store the attachment files at the recipient computer. This problem is exacerbated if the attachment files comprises large files, e.g., video files and high-resolution graphic files. Moreover, the transmission of multiple copies of large attachments clutters the e-mail system utilized to transfer e-mail documents among sender and recipient computers.
Therefore, a need exists for a method, article of manufacture and apparatus for reducing the copies of attachment files transmitted through an e-mail system.